Overview
Residents of 88 Melbourne suburbs are being told to hold off on drinking their tap water today (unless it's boiled), after last night's storms caused electrical damage impacting some of the city's water supply. Yarra Valley Water, which is Melbourne's largest retail water utility, sounded the alert via Twitter this morning. "Some water may have entered our drinking water supply network that had not been treated to the usual standard," the company has warned. Power has since returned and it's addressed the initial issue, though some areas are still being supplied with water that's not been properly treated.
Until it resolves the problem, Yarra Valley Water is advising residents of the impacted suburbs to take precautions and bring any tap water to a rolling boil before using it to drink, brush teeth, make ice, or prepare food or baby formula. The company Tweeted that the risk of illness from drinking the water is low, but that people should see their doctor if they experience any gastro-type symptoms. It's expecting things to be fixed by this afternoon and says it will send out confirmation when the suburbs' tap water supply is back to normal quality.
To make matters worse, Yarra Valley Water's website has been having some issues of its own today and has been down for part of the morning. But if you want to know which suburbs have been affected, here they are:
Attwood
Bayswater
Bayswater North
Blackburn
Blackburn North
Blackburn South
Boronia
Box Hill North
Broadmeadows
Bulleen
Bundoora
Burwood
Burwood East
Campbellfield
Chirnside Park
Coburg North
Coldstream
Coolaroo
Craigieburn
Croydon
Croydon Hills
Croydon North
Croydon South
Dallas
Doncaster
Doncaster East
Donvale
Doreen
Eltham
Epping
Fawkner
Forest Hill
Glen Waverley
Greensborough
Greensborough
Greenvale
Heathmont
Kalorama
Kangaroo Ground
Kilsyth
Kilsyth South
Kingsbury
Lalor
Lilydale
Lower Plenty
Meadow Heights
Melbourne Airport
Mernda
Mill Park
Mitcham
Monbulk
Mont Albert North
Montmorency
Montrose
Mooroolbark
Mount Dandenong
Mount Evelyn
Mount Waverley
North Warrandyte
Nunawading
Olinda
Park Orchards
Plenty
Research
Reservoir
Ringwood
Ringwood East
Ringwood North
Roxburgh Park
Silvan
Somerton
South Morang
Templestowe
Templestowe Lower
The Basin
Thomastown
Vermont
Vermont South
Viewbank
Wantirna
Warrandyte
Warrandyte South
Warranwood
Westmeadows
Wollert
Wonga Park
Yallambie
Yarrambat
For updates on the water supply issue, keep an eye on Yarra Valley Water's Twitter account.